ROSE COLORED VIEW - USING FILTERS REAL OR DIGITAL TO ENHANCE BEAUTY
I have a pair of sunglasses with lenses tinted the perfect shade of rose. When I wear them my view of the world is fantastic. Everything looks picture-worthy. These glasses are ridiculously big on me and my kids have informed me they lend me a certain air of wackiness but vanity and sanity be dashed - I’m hooked on the way they make my world look beautiful.
This enhanced outlook got me thinking about lens filters and my image making. I don’t typically use filters on my camera. I tend to like to keep things rather simple when I’m out there - in fact sometimes I don’t even like to use my tripod or change the lens as much as I should. But I figure if my world can look this good through a pair of sunglass lenses then perhaps I should try applying this rose-brown colour to some of my images.
So I spent a bit of time playing around with a few images I took recently, adding colour filter effects in post processing to see what I might be able to get. I found I liked the simplicity of using some presets I have from Trey Ratcliff’s collection right in Lightroom. I always start with my images in Lightroom so testing out different ideas there was really simple and fun. For the image below I started with Trey’s “Fading into the Red” and tweaked the sliders until it started to look like what I was after. I then moved the image over to Photoshop to clean things up and make some final refinements (spot removal, Noiseware, Color Efex Pro and sharpening).
I love the way that creative inspiration can come from the most unusual places sometimes. Anyhow, hope you have something fun planned for the upcoming weekend. And if you find yourself in need of a bit of inspiration or a rosier view, perhaps consider trying out some filters (digital or real). Or maybe just treat yourself to a pair of cheap wacky sunglasses.
SOURCES OF INSPIRATION FOR THIS WEEK:
This image from Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn. I got to watch as Kerry-Ann tried out her new ND filter at sunset over on our Toronto G+ Photowalk a few weekends back. In addition to the ND filter, she was also experimenting with what is called a black-card technique. Here is a link to understand how this works.
The rosy hues of this image posted by National Geographic Travel caught my eye and the article got me dreaming of travelling to a place where midnight safaris are possible.